SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

Saturday sees Liverpool host Everton in the Merseyside derby before on Sunday, Premier League leaders Chelsea tackle London foes Arsenal. Elsewhere on a weekend that boasts a full programme of top-flight fixtures, bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth make the daunting trip to Old Trafford, ambitious pair Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa clash, Hull City entertain fourth-placed contenders Manchester City while Birmingham City meet Midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Real Madrid will look to build on last weekend's morale-boosting victory over Deportivo La Coruna with an 11th successive home win on Saturday when they welcome Espanyol to the Bernabeu. Whilst Madrid will be looking to put one over Barcelona's city rivals this weekend, Pellegrini's men will also be hoping their neighbours Getafe can do them a favour when they take on Pep Guardiola's side.

This was the week in which John Terry was very naughty boy, Arjen Robben was told to change his underwear, Guti became the best player in Spain, Robinho received a hero's welcome in Santos and Tim Cahill proved he was better than a flea.

Brian Clough once said that a goalkeeper could be worth 15 points in a season. If, like many of Clough's comments, it contained an element of hyperbole, Peter Shilton came close to justifying it during his days at Nottingham Forest. So did Manchester United's Peter Schmeichel, especially in the 1995-96 season.

So where does this leave Arsenal's season? In truth, the Arsenal of 2010 have all of the same deficiencies as the sides that have come up short in the last few years and the manager has to take his share of the blame for those failings.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The MBA Soccer website is now up and running at www.mbasoccer.org. This site belongs to the MBA soccer club community to discuss the business of soccer with professors and sports business professionals, link the four annual MBA soccer tournaments through a point system, and promote the good work of effective non-profits.

What you will notice:·A comment from US Soccer president Sunil Gulati

·An original article on Soccernomics’ opinion that the Spanish national team “overachieves”

·An interview with Prof. Simon Chadwick on soccer sponsorships

·Four effective soccer non-profits highlighted

·Proposed rankings from the Yale and UCLA MBA soccer tournaments

What’s to come:

·An interview with Prof. Bill Gerrard and his application of Moneyball to determine the performance of professional soccer players

·An original article on why foreign domestic leagues should adopt American-style all-star games to generate more revenue

·Your contributions and thoughts to build a stronger foundation for our soccer clubs

1.30pm: Knock on lid of sunbed and ask Claudine where designer washbag is. She says she'll pack it for me when she's finished topping up her tan. She's been a massive fan of UV rays, going back to when she was a kid growing up in Dublin.

Unlike previous tournaments, this Africa Cup of Nations was not so much a 'football festival' and far more, it often seemed, a three-week advert for hosts Angola. After the final, I asked the local organising committee's executive director whether the 2010 Nations Cup would be remembered for the football or the deadly attack on Togo, to which Antonio Mangueira replied 'the football and we had some wonderful fireworks too'.

"The sandwiches were fantastic today - all the lads made a comment because they didn't think they were going to get any!"Neil Warnock on a roll after troubled Crystal Palace's 2-0 defeat of Peterborough.

"Perhaps they should call me Moses, as I led them out of the wilderness."Bolton boss Owen Coyle cranks up the biblical references after Burnley fans taunted him with chants of "Judas" during their meeting at the Reebok.

"The scarf is cool. I want one. Mancini is certainly cooler than that Taggart from across the road. He's a good manager but he looks like a dustbin man."Some might say there's no love lost between Liam Gallagher and Sir Alex Ferguson.

"Philippe was as good as we were going to get in our situation."Philippe Senderos gets a ringing endorsement from new boss David Moyes after joining Everton on loan from Arsenal.

"90 years old, that's fantastic. If I can even get halfway there I'd be happy."A not-so-optimistic Steve Bull, who turns 45 in March, talking about Wolves legend Bert Williams turning 90.

"Same old Terry, always cheating."Burnley fans after John Terry committed a foul.

The recent trend of high-profile European movers appeared to come to an end in this transfer window as the money dried up, but that has not stopped some of the continent's best clubs snatching themselves a few bargains.

Breaking more than a decade of silence, former U.S. soccer coach Steve Sampson said Tuesday he dropped John Harkes from the national team roster two months before the 1998 World Cup because the American captain was having an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda.

Wynalda brought up the situation Monday night during a discussion on "Fox Football Fone-In" about a scandal in England over an alleged relationship between current English captain John Terry and the former partner of Wayne Bridge, his teammate on the national squad.

Before sampling the intensity of the Klassieker between Feyenoord and Ajax, Ben Findon visited the more sedate home of AZ Alkmaar, and found that all is not well on and off the pitch for last year’s Eredivisie champions.

If you were at all conscious this weekend and vaguely interested in football you will have seen the back-heeled pass that Real Madrid's Guti conjured up on Saturday night for Karim Benzema to score against Deportivo de La Coruña, up in windy Galicia. If not, take a look now.

Travel to South Africa, as exotic as it may sound, has turned out to be prohibitively expensive. Flights from New York to Johannesburg -- where most games, including the final, will be played -- would normally cost about $1,000, but they will set you back at least $2,500 if travelling during the World Cup.

AC Milan missed the chance to close the gap on Inter Milan to six points as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Livorno. Milan move to eight points behind Inter, whose match at Parma was postponed due to snow, and, although they remain second, they have now been caught by Roma, who are level on points with the Rossoneri following victory over Siena. Roma, however, have played one more match than Milan. Juventus nudged up a place to fifth in Serie A, going above Palermo, after a 1-1 draw at home against lowly Lazio.

Sevilla jumped to fourth place in La Liga with a 2-1 home victory over Valencia. Barcelona preserved their five-point lead at the top with a 1-0 win at Sporting Gijon, while second-placed Real Madrid won 3-1 at Deportivo La Coruna and Espanyol defeated Athletic Bilbao 1-0.

Arsenal suffered an all too familiar humiliation at the hands of a title rival as Manchester United kept up the pressure on table-toppers Chelsea, who came through their test at Burnley.

Elsewhere, top-four contenders Liverpool and Manchester City were both victorious, Tottenham Hotspur dropped two points, Aston Villa inflicted a fifth straight loss on Fulham while Everton continued their resurgence.